Genesis 28:9 Meaning Esau Went to Ishmael

The outer man, rejected in his first unions, turns toward the wild half-brother and marries into that line, and this is the appetite of the flesh seeking a mate more like itself when the higher pairing has failed it. Ishmael is the untamed offspring of the bondwoman, the natural life born of the lower promise, a hand against every man and dwelling apart. Esau the red senses go there because like draws to like: the outward self weds the outward self.

Mahalath carries in her root the sense of the stringed instrument and the sweetness of sound, the pleasant surface that soothes without lifting. The man of blood chooses her, and so binds his lower nature more firmly to the wilderness of the untrained mind rather than to the inward promise.

Esau: the red outward self of appetite and the field, seeking its own kind Ishmael: the untamed natural life, the wild son who dwells apart from the inner promise Mahalath: the sweet stringed sound of the surface, pleasure that soothes but never raises the man